The Herald

UO Herald - Contest

Publish 103 Keep Contest Important Dates

10/22/2018

Greetings,

Please take note of the following important dates as they relate to the Publish 103 Keep contest.  As of today, TC1 has been wiped.

Contest Start
Monday, October 22, 2018 9:40:45 AM ET

First Round Voting
Monday, November 5, 2018 8:47:25 AM ET

Final Round Voting
Monday, November 12, 2018 8:47:25 AM ET

Vote Tally
Thursday, November 15, 2018 8:47:25 AM ET

We look forward to seeing many great designs this time around!

See you in Britannia,

UO Team


UO Herald - Contest

Publish 103 Keep Design Contest

October 19, 2018

Greetings everyone,

We would like to announce we are wiping TC1 Monday October 22nd so we can begin the next house design contest which will feature keeps only.  This period we are not accepting castle designs.  Please know we have updated the contest and will be going through two voting periods, see the changes below:

  • Players will have two weeks to design a keep and submit it  for voting
  • Players have one week to vote on their favorite keep design
  • From the results of player votes we will  advance  the top 20 keep designs to a second voting period where players will have three days to vote for their favorite design
  • From the final voting we will pick from among the top keeps from player votes and the developers will pick their favorites from the remaining 17 entries

We  look forward to seeing how creative everyone is!

UO Team

 


Publish 102 Comes to Origin, Baja, and Izumo

10/16/2018

Greetings,

With regularly scheduled maintenance beginning October 17, 2018 Publish 102 will be deployed to Origin, Baja, and Izumo.  You can read about the new Huntmaster’s Challenge and other Publish 102 features in the notes.

There is a mandatory client patch associated with this release, so please make sure you update your client before accessing any shard.

See you in Britannia,

UO Team


Publish 102 TC Release 1

10/11/2018

Greetings,

We are pleased to announce Publish 102 will be available on TC on October 12, 2018.  Publish 102 introduces new content for the Huntmaster’s Challenge along with some other updates you can read about in the publish notes.

We will be hosting a public play session all day on October 12th, so hop on and say hello and give some feedback.  Let’s see who can hunt the largest of the new trophies!

Due to the accelerated publish schedule of Publish 102, we will not be wiping Publish 102 for a new castle & keep design contest, as a result look forward to a new contest in Publish 103!

There is a mandatory client patch associated with this release.  Please make sure you patch up your client to the latest version before logging into any shard.

See you in Britannia,

UO Team


UO Herald - Special Announcement

Publish 101 Update

10/9/2018

Greetings Everyone,

We have made the following adjustments to Publish 101 that will be released on the shards during normal maintenance time beginning with the Japanese shards this evening, 10/9/2018:

  1.  The  Khal Ankur and the Dragon Turtle  champ spawns located in Felucca have been adjusted to spawn upon morning maintenance and can only be reactivated with valor after the first spawn.
  2.  Cultist’s Ritual Tomes will no longer be spawning as a blessed item on Siege and Mugen.
  3.   The information for the Felucca Khal Ankur Champ Spawn in the Wiki regarding the guaranteed 120 Power Scroll drop has been corrected, it now states 4 instead of 8 scrolls.

We appreciate all your feedback and look forward to more in the future.

UO Team

 


UO Herald - Lore

The Oldest One

10/8/2018

To shepherd in the Treasures of Khaldun we have a series of short pieces of fiction to supplement the events in-game.  We present the next installment,

The Oldest One

By EM Malachi

When Mordea had yet again recounted the Line of Blood that granted her primacy over Tempestry, the Master Sorcerer Malchir threatened to brand her with his fire magic. Even stranded far from their world of Pagan, the Sorcerers and Tempests were bitter rivals. Both cult leaders wanted to strike again at Britannia, but neither wished to cede authority.

Lothian ignored them all. The blind necromancer ran her finger along the pages of the rotting tome that was even older than she was. A screaming Britannian mage had surrendered the book and all he knew about Khaldun. The Tempests and Sorcerers had lined up to kill each other when Lothian slowly stood up. The withered crone had not left her chair in years, carried from place to place in a palanquin lifted by skeletons. All the cultists stopped bickering and watched Lothian. Even Mordea turned her head slightly, knowing that even the thickest blood could grow thin when a follower of Lithos was angered.

Lothian spoke, “We are only allies by the cruelty of fate, but we all serve something greater. The Titans may be gone, but the darkness still exists.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked one of the younger sorcerers. One of his fellows desperately tugged at his sleeve to silence him.

Lothian gave him a stern look, and necromantic rot started to spread up his arm. At the elbow, she stopped, letting him keep the rest of the limb. Lothian continued, “We have an opportunity, but we must act now. We can use the secrets of this world against it.”

As many in the crowd nodded in approval, Mordea herself asked, “What must we do?”

Lothian handed the arcane text to a skeleton, who carried it over to the other cultists. “I have knowledge of the King of Seven Deaths and how to wake him. He sleeps until four great powers join him in the shade.”

Malchir was now focused and asked, “Does this mean we should kill four of their leaders?”

Lothian clucked her tongue. “Years ago, four humans were sacrificed, as if that were meaningful at all. No, something greater is needed. We together have the means to summon this undying mage king: the remnants of the Titan we served.”

There were whispers of doubt in the crowd, so Lothian continued, “Yes, yes, we will lose access to much of our respective magics, but most of you would lose that in death anyway. We no longer have the means to wage a direct war against Sosaria, but that doesn’t mean we can’t break the back of this world before the darkness comes. Work with me, and we will wake Khal Ankur.”


UO Herald - Special Announcement

Log In Server Maintenance & New Ultima Store Items

10/1/18

On Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018 beginning at 10 am ET the login servers will be unavailable for approximately 1 hour. During this maintenance time, players will be unable to log in. Thank you and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

We are also excited to release two new items in the Ultima Store, the Undead Cat Mount & Potion of Glorious Fortune.  Veteran players may claim a complimentary Potion of Glorious Fortune from the Generous Alchemist located at the Khaldun Camp.

See you in Britannia,

UO Team


UO Herald - Lore

Seven Deaths

10/1/2018

To shepherd in the Treasures of Khaldun we have a series of short pieces of fiction to supplement the events in-game.  We present the next installment,

Seven Deaths

By EM Malachi

The bone fingers wrapped around a stone and began scratching the words again onto the crypt walls. The skeleton did not see the blasphemy it was writing. The Sun had never touched the dark tunnels, and the skeleton’s eyes had long ago decayed to dust. It didn’t matter. The story itself was part of the spell that kept it moving, and it would continue to etch the words over every stone surface for eternity, as it waited for the return:

There was once a powerful mage named Khal Ankur whose glory demanded tribute from all those around his domain. The leaders and sages in these lands grew to resent this high price and looked for a way to end the mage’s reign.

One lord sent an assassin to cut out Khal Ankur’s heart. In the night, the killer came with blades sharp enough to split hairs. The mage woke when the blades pierced his chest, and Khal Ankur spoke to the killer, “For the gift you have given me, I give equal measure.” When he was done, Khal Ankur returned the assassin’s heart to the lord who had sent him.

Another king saw an opportunity, and offered Khal Ankur his daughter’s hand. While the young bride was sweet, the poison she carried was not. As the newly married couple raised a toast, Khal Ankur drank deeply from his cup. As his lips turned black, he spoke to his bride, “For the gift you have given me, I give equal measure.” Then he kissed her.

One nation sent their greatest witch-hunter. The zealot pulled Khal Ankur from his sanctum and covered him with flammable oils. As the roaring flames tore at his body, Khal Ankur laughed at the hunter. “For the gift you have given me, I give equal measure.” The wind brought the zealot’s ashes home.

Confident from drink, a mob of young princes thought to take care of what their elders could not. They managed to corner Khal Ankur at a feast and bludgeon him unconscious. Covering his head with a sack and binding his feet with heavy irons, they drowned Khal Ankur in the deep sea. Khal Ankur’s voice was heard from beneath the waves, “For the gift you have given me, I give equal measure.” They spent the night celebrating on the edge of the tide, and a sudden surge claimed their drunken forms.

A settlement of miners decided to stop paying the golden tribute demanded of them, sending instead one covered in pox and pestilence. The leper died at the gates to Khal Ankur’s domain, and the sickness spread through those who served the mage. As the pox marked Khal Ankur’s flesh, he made the journey to the mines. His voice rumbled down the tunnels, “For this gift you have given me, I give equal measure.” No gold ever left those mines again.

An alliance of kingdoms sent their armies to surround and lay siege to Khal Ankur’s fortress. Without food or supplies, those inside consumed insects and rats before dying of hunger. On the final day, the mage walked out of the fortress, withered from hunger. Khal Ankur bit into his own arm for a taste of meat. Collapsing to the ground and with his own blood dripping from his mouth, he offered this retort, “For this gift you have given me, I give equal measure.” Locusts destroyed the harvest that year, and all food stores spoiled. Those kingdoms became known as the lands of gnawed bones.

With the pathetic rabble crushed and utterly alone, Khal Ankur grew melancholy and retreated to the crypt under his sanctum. He lay on a slab of stone and mark his forehead with a powerful glyph. As his life drained away, the bodies of his servants and enemies started to move. The horde came to his side to listen to his final words: “I will sleep until four great powers join me in the shade. Give me this gift, and I will give equal measure.”